Juarez, Day 1

Day three started with our early trip across the border. Nobody got stopped and nobody got lost. We went across with 4 vehicles this year instead of 3, so there was a lot more room. There was a thick haze over Juarez and El Paso that was visible once we got to Frankie's. Again, Frankie is the man who started the mission that we stay at. Every year, we stay here and try to do a project or two for him as well. There is a link on the right side of my blog that you can go to to read his story. He eats dinner with us every year and tells us stories and they are both inspirational and entertaining. That is always my favorite meal of the week. We drove to the build site which consisted of a very good road, until the very end. Then it becomes really steep, with large rocks that makes driving difficult, especially when you are trying to back a 15 passenger van up an incline that probably shouldn't be attempted on foot without hiking boots and a rope. Here is a picture of the very end, the house on the left is where the family we are building for lives. The site is very tight with very little room on either side of the concrete slab to move around. We were able to get the 2 large walls up and braced for the evening. They are sided and painted, so I think that is pretty good progress for 1/2 day or so. The slope behind the house is steep with large rocks, so I'm sure nobody will be living behind them. That, again, is their house and that smaller square in the middle is the bathroom, or as all of us that grew up with out houses, that's what it is. I don't know how they broke through the solid rock to get the flat spot, jack hammer I guess. I know they did jackhammer to make room for the slab, but I can't imagine that it was flat before that. The neighborhood is typical of what we have seen in the past, some pretty nice houses mixed with some that aren't so nice. We met the mother and the two daughters that will be living there, in fact, they helped us paint. Thankfully, we have a translator this year, Ruthie. We are able to have conversations with the family to ask questions about them and the people in the neighborhood. The mother told us that the houses around her are all family. I have learned that family is very important in Mexico, at least those that we have talked to led me to believe that. Monday night is prayer meeting night and we always attend. I don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English, but they tell us the Bible verses they are reading and God's word is universal. This year, the service was 2 hours and 10 minutes long. We hadn't eaten, so the stomach was a rumbling. We share pizza with the people who attend the meeting. They sing a bunch of songs to open the meeting and start kind of a conga line. I've learned in the past to put off getting into the line as long as you can because if you get in early, you are running around in circles for a half hour. I actually have more fun just watching the people dance than I do participating, especially watching the kids